Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the warning from the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar on the risk of further mass atrocity crimes by the military in that country.

The UK shares the concerns of the UN Special Rapporteur regarding the risk of further mass atrocity crimes in Myanmar. The UK has developed strong mechanisms, in consultation with civil society experts, to monitor emerging atrocity risks. The UK has set up the Myanmar Witness programme which is gathering and reporting open-source information on serious human rights violations. The UK is closely monitoring the situation on the ground, particularly in North West Myanmar and Rakhine, and released a statement on 15 October regarding troop build ups in Chin, Sagaing and Magwe, calling on the military to cease the violence. We convened a UN Security Council on 8 November and secured a press statement on violence, protection of civilians, humanitarian access and vaccines.